512 Pixels

Mike Elgan:

Netbooks suck for typing. Believe me. I’m a professional. One problem is that the keyboards are too cramped. But the other is that tiny netbooks force you to have the screen too close for comfortable reading.

A touch tablet is also a netbook. Just add a kickstand to prop up the screen and add a Bluetooth keyboard. The best part is that you can add the keyboard of your choice, not the one that happens to match the netbook’s screen size.

It can be a fold-up, roll-out, light-based, or even giant old-school keyboard. Or it can be something that is built-into and detaches from the tablet itself, or the tablet’s case. And the screen can be propped up and placed at any distance, not the distance dictated by the keyboard’s location.

What is a netbook, anyway, but a tablet with a bulky keyboard attached? And what is a tablet, but an ergonomically adjustable netbook that also functions without the detached keyboard?

I bet you $100 that if Apple ships a tablet, it won’t have a keyboard — even an optional one.

Computerworld:

Apple has delayed shipping new 27-in. iMacs until it can figure out the cause of flickering screens and other display problems, according to reports from authorized resellers.

The move came just days after a Web designer created a site that tallied issues with the 27-in. iMacs, including screens broken in shipment, on-again-off-again flickering displays and screens that showed a jaundice-yellow tint.

[…]

Earlier this week, Apple changed the shipping status on its online store for both 27-in. iMac models from “Ships: 5-7 days” or “Ships 7-10 days” to “Ships: 2 weeks.” Although high volume sales could account for the change, Pronych said he had been told by some users that Apple had pushed back the projected ship dates for their already-ordered iMacs.

I know we’ve seen several in our shop already with this issue. Hopefully, Apple can sort it out for future models and release a fix for existing machines.

Mac|Life has put together a nice little guide to syncing Android-powered phones with built-in Mac apps like iTunes and iPhoto.

Rush Coil has put together an album of Christmas music inspired by classic video game music. You can listen to the whole thing online, but hey, it’s only $4 for the album and for a good cause.

This is a very cool PDF.

Batman is the best superhero ever. Don’t write me and try to argue this one.

Last week, I wrote this regarding what OS should run the tablet:

Maybe the strongest option would be a hybrid between the Mac and iPhone OS. I imagine this as a device running Mac OS X, but also having the ability to run apps purchased from the App Store in some type of environment like OS X’s Dashboard. That way, the tablet is both the most portable Mac and the largest iPod touch on the market.

While I still think this is the perfect solution for the mythical product, I think it would do wonders to OS X’s Dashboard feature.

Released with 10.4, Dashboard was touted as a quick-and-easy way to check specific information. Dashboard was a huge controversy when first released. At the time, a product named Konfabulator was already on the market, and did pretty much the exact same thing Apple’s Dashboard product did. Many cried foul, and a few months later, Yahoo snapped up the small company.

Early examples of widgets included Weather, Flight Tracker and Stickies. While it wasn’t as quick as Apple has promised (the eye candy was too much for most Macs shipping at the time), it was the easiest way to check stocks and other information without having to launch a browser.

But I — like most users — used Dashboard heavily at first and then just forgot about it. Sure, I use it for things like iStat and AccuWeather, but I bet it’s been a long time since I added any new widgets to the 3 or 4 I keep open.

It seems to me that Dashboard may be dying.

Development of new Dashboard widgets has slowed considerably over the years. Apple keeps a repository of available downloads, and it seems to be about the same size it’s been for some time. I think the App Store is the major reason why.* Why develop something for free for the Mac when you can both charge for it and have it available to a much larger install base?

Of course, Apple has had programs that ran their course and have gone away. The big one that comes to mind is Sherlock. (Which in many ways, was replaced with Dashboard.)

One way to keep Dashboard relevant is to re-create it as an environment for iPhone apps to run on the tablet.

The major — and probably only — downside to this is that it could negatively impact the development of Mac apps. If Apple does indeed use iPhone apps on any device other than an iPhone or iPod touch, they’ll have to figure out a way to protect Mac developers and their work.

———-

*Making this ironic.

From their site:

MagicPrefs is a free menubar application for OSX which aims to improve the functionality and configuration options of the Apple Magic Mouse. It features the ability to bind a variable number of finger clicks and taps to functions like Middle Click, Hold Down Both Mouse Buttons, Spaces, Expose, Dashboard etc. Tap Sensitivity implements a advanced algorithm that impacts a number of factors used to determine taps , all controllable by a single slider. Tracking Speed adds the ability to increase the maximum available speed by a extra 25%. And to top it all off it features a real-time display of the fingers touching the surface of the mouse that you can enable to test and monitor the way the mouse sees your input.

I love my Magic Mouse, but was was disappointed by how few things it can do with Apple’s built-in driver. This looks like a great addition.

[ via Shawn Blanc]

NPR:

In 1983, Mockapetris developed a protocol that associated strings of numbers with an easy-to-remember name. For instance, the IP address 216.35.221.77 is npr.org. You can type either one into your Internet browser and get NPR’s Web site, but it’s much easier to remember npr.org.

Mockapetris’ system is referred to as the DN — the domain name system —and it’s one of the fundamental building blocks of the Internet.

[…]

“I tend to think of that as sort of the dinosaur age,” Mockapetris says. “1983 was the year we had a big change-over to IP, TCP, DNS and all of these new protocols. It was sort of the start of mammals on the Internet.”

Computers were suddenly able to talk with computers on different networks, creating an interconnected network — or the Internet, as we know it today. Mockapetris realized early on that to accommodate all the millions or more addresses that were about to bloom, they were going to need a better naming system.

You can read more about DNS here.

Google Mobile Blog:

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

Randall Stross for the New York Times:

Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone’s “air interface,” the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that “affect both voice and data.” He said that in the eyes of the consumer, “the iPhone has the nimbus of infallibility, ergo, it’s AT&T’s fault.” AT&T does not publicly defend itself because it will not criticize Apple under any circumstances, he said. AT&T and Apple both declined to comment on Mr. Entner’s assessments.

Neither AT&T nor Verizon was willing to reveal its internal data on performance. But Global Wireless Solutions, one of the third-party services that run network tests for the major carriers, shared some of its current findings. The service dispatches drivers across the country with phones and laptops equipped with data cards. They have covered more than three million miles of roads this year, while running almost two million wireless data sessions and placing more than three million voice calls, said Paul Carter, the president.

The results place AT&T’s data network not just on top, but well ahead of everyone else. “AT&T’s data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition, including Verizon,” Mr. Carter said. AT&T is a client and Verizon is not, he added.

AT&T’s network does have flaws — like yesterday’s outage in San Francisco — but this seems to say that AT&T’s offering the best thing out there. But even at the top, there are a lot of things that could be improved:

Chetan Sharma, a telecommunications consultant whose clients have included AT&T and Verizon, said that when the network and the handset were improved, customers “just used it all the more.” AT&T didn’t anticipate the rate of growth and didn’t upgrade fast enough in some markets, he said. “Other operators have the luxury of watching and learning from AT&T,” he said, “which has the most number of next-generation smartphones, with full browsers and built-in video players.”

And this may be the biggest problem when it comes to the iPhone:

AT&T and Apple could both gain by swapping talent.

Apple, send your marketing wizards to lend your partner a hand. It sorely needs help.

AT&T, send some engineers to redesign the iPhone to make better use of the country’s fastest wireless network.

I love this stuff.

Letterbox is a Mail plugin that moves the message portion of the window to the left of the mailbox, as opposed to under it, a la Outlook.

I’ve used it for years on my notebooks, where vertical space is at a premium. I have never used it on my iMac, where screen real estate is much more abundant.

Anyways, Letterbox Beta 5 is out, and after installing it a few days ago, I’m happy as a clam in Mail once again. Check it out.